Le Tour 08, Stage 21 - Etampes to Paris

Words by Ed Hood, Photos by Ed and Martin Williamson

Salle de Presse, Meridien Hotel, Paris, 18.55 Sunday July 27th. We just watched Steegmans demonstrate how to sprint, he’s a much better sprinter than he is a time triallist [see yesterday’s Pez piece].

Sastre won his, and CSC’s first Grand Tour without drama, there was the usual show boating – ‘Carlos with glass of champagne’, it says here on this script - and French riders grabbing TV time, so the sponsor’s VIP’s could enjoy their champagne more.

For me, it’s been another day of great experiences. By choice, I always like to write about racing or racing cyclists.

Ideally I would have liked us to have walked the circuit, doing interviews as we went and counting down the laps in a ‘real time’ as the race flashed past. But Pez pays the bills and he wanted me to go with the Festina motor on the Publicity Caravan.

I’m glad I did, if you drive a stage, you cannot help but be affected by the joy, enthusiasm and just sheer ‘good to be alivedness’ of it all.

It’s all up there on Pez, along with some good (it’s the new camera!) pics.

We spent the night in Orleans, an Ibis Hotel – it was first class and not dear at around 60-odd euros including an excellent breakfast.

There was an Arab run café next door and we had frites and pizza at about 11.00 pm – it looked a bit rough, but the boys were sound and the grub was great.

Martin rattled the Volvo up the road this morning and we were at the start in Etampes in no time.

Pascal Orsini was the man to talk to, quietly though; he’d been partying the night before and needed shades to protect his eyes from the Sunday morning sunlight.

The caravan is amazing, some of the set ups are just so ingenuous and inventive. Vittel have a set up with four or five racing bikes bolted on to motorbike side car beds, so as it looks like the guys are riding the bikes alongside the motorbike.

The bikes have big Derny style seats to stop the ‘riders’ backside getting too sore; they ‘ride’ the full stages, including the mountains.

They have a lovely 60’s sports car as a team car and a police car, they get up to all sorts of nonsense before and during the stage, the guys must be actors, maybe mime artists, because they are so quick witted and clever at what they do.

One of them ‘arrested’ me this morning, (his cuffing technique was much lighter than the real thing, though) and then he and I were on the kiddies motor cycle in the supermarket – nonsense, but it makes for good photos for the sites.

Poor Martin drew the short straw again, I got the ride in the Festina van and he had to drive the car to Paris.

After the finish, I grabbed the Metro up here to the Hotel Meridien, which is four kilometres from the finish and quite plush.

I think ‘I’m ‘written out’ for the day, so I’ll say ‘ciao’.

Le Tour 08, Stage 20 - Cerilly to Saint-Amand-Montrond

Words by Ed Hood, Photos by Ed and Martin Williamson

The Salle de Presse, 17.30 Saturday 26th July and Carlos Sastre has just won the Tour de France, it won’t be official until tomorrow after the big show on the Champs Elysee, but it’s won.

Personally I’m happy with the result; at least Sastre took the race by the scruff of the neck on L’Alpe D’Huez, an ‘exploit.’

Evans strategy of following may have been dictated by the weakness of his team, but it would have been hard to be enthusiastic about him as a Tour winner.

Sastre is a good pro, who doesn’t have an over inflated opinion of himself, and I’m a fan of most things Spanish, so that’s cool.

As we sit here though, the word is out from Denmark “that Frank Schleck and (Bjarne) Riis met with Fuentes in Madrid back in 2005 and suggests that Frank Schleck is linked to the Puerto nickname Amigo de Brillo,” depressing – but who cares, apart from conservative Danish newspapers?

I was lamenting the lack of fans on L’Alpe t’other day, I have to eat humble pie and say that the last two days have not raised any such complaint from me; yesterday especially the crowds were great, and when we followed Adam Hansen in the time trial today (see Pez) it made me really want to be roads side with my neebz, and a cool box full of baguettes, fromage, jambon and biere.

On the monitors, French TV is interviewing Marc Sargeant [did I ever tell you that Dave used to race against him when Marc was Belgian amateur champion?] the word ‘devastated’ was invented with this interview in mind.

Now we have Schumacher explaining how he can beat the best time triallists in the world twice during this Tour.

Then, all of a sudden, there he is, just a few feet away – Carlos Sastre, a small, shy man who looks rather over whelmed by it all.

Brian Nygaard, the CSC press and ‘fixer’ guy beams from the podium; ‘questions s’il vous plait?’

Carlos answers in Spanish, with a lot of words extended with an, ‘eeeeeeeee’ on the end as he thinks about the rest of his answer.

The room is ‘flat,’ no ‘buzz,’ not helped by Carlos snacking on peanuts as he listens to the questions being translated.

Behind us a battery of TV cameras have appeared, to record every word the little Spaniard says – he can talk, that’s for sure, we just had a huge monologue, which thanked everyone in CSC, including the gardener at CSC world headquarters, who makes such a great job of cutting the grass.

Now we have the; ‘will the 2008 Tour not be remembered for the doping scandals, rather than the racing and why should we believe that any rider is clean, including you?’ question, it’s from a US journo, in English.

We get the answer in French – that’s handy, but we do get a translation; ‘I am clean, I know how much I suffered, I know how to train, we can’t eliminate the cheaters, but we can fight them, etc, etc.

There’s no applause for Carlos when he leaves the room.

It’s the second time we’ve had riders in here today, Arvesen and O’Grady got chucked out earlier because they didn’t have the correct creds, the Norwegian was making a big production of it; ‘I just want to see my team mates on TV and this man is throwing me out!”

Matthieu, the ASO man in question was unimpressed; “Leave! Now!”

All good fun.

We enjoyed today’s trip around the chrono course, it’s always uplifting to drive the route and today the country was nice, it was cool when Adam caught Steegmans, it gave me a good focal point to write about.

Hansen is a cool guy, thoughtful and helpful, as are most of the pros that you come across.

One day to go, we’re supposed to be on the Festina Tour caravan lorry, hope I don’t have to dress up !

Wait a minute, Festina? Didn’t they . . . .

Le Tour 08, Stage 19 - Roanne to Montlucon

Words by Ed Hood, Photos by Ed and Martin Williamson

Bonjour 08.30 we're just getting ready to roll.

This is our second F1 hotel of the trip, Grenoble two nights ago and here, last night, basic but clean and the beds work fine - 33 euros for the two of us, so musn't grumble.

It's another beautiful day in France, more that can be said for St. Etienne, which seems to be re-inventing itself as a 'Techno Town.'

The old part of town is fine though, we had an excellent pizza in a little restaurant last night.

It was great to sit down at a semi reasonable hour with a knife and fork and know we didn't have a huge drive to put in after our meal.

Nearly read to roll, so wish me luck on my Kawasaki!...

______________________________

Ciao. Like you'll be sick of hearing me say - 'it's up there on Pez,' but it will be soon.

Dominik, the guy from ASO, who set it up for me asked me how it was; "one of the best days of my life," I replied.

A wonderful experience, it'll probably take a day or two to sink in.

We were on the road early out of Saint Etienne to get to the start at Roanne in plenty of time to confirm my gig.

That done, we had some breakfast - no scrambled eggs in the Tour Village this year - ham and bread, fruit salad and excellent coffee.

After that we did a 'bike skek,' getting Kohl, Freire, Vandevelde and Evan's bikes. We had good crack with the mechanics and got some sad little facts to go with the pics - hopefully it'll be Pezzed before too long.

After that it was time for the Kwaker.

It's 21.30 local time, and we're nearly ready to shut up shop.

Martin had a cool day too - he gave a lift from the start up to the finish to Emma Davies Jones, pro bike rider and Eurosport Commentator, ending the journey with 30 minutes in the commentators' box alongside Dave Harmon and Sean Kelly.

Bonsoir!

Le Tour 08, Stage 18 - Bourg D'Oisans to Saint-Etienne

Words By Ed Hood, Photos by Martin Williamson

Guten dag!

We honoured Carlos yesterday, so we best pay tribute to Big Marcus today. It's been a great Tour for Columbia - and it's not over yet.

We had to be flexible today, the plot was to do a bike feature - the top GC riders plus points and mountains leaders - but the start at Bourg-D'Oisans was so tight for space, with team buses in the village streets that there was no room for the team trucks.

These went directly to the hotels at the finish in St. Etienne, so it wasn't the best day to bike skek.

Thinking on my feet, I decided to do an opinion piece on "has Sastre done enough to win?" it's on Pez - give it a skek, for words of wisdom from, among others, Patrick Lefevre (above), Roger Legeay and Claudio Corti.

I also did a wee interview with my journalistic idol, Philippe Brunel (left); "the winner must CONQUER the Tour."

Cycling journalism as philosophy, I love it!

I could have left it at that, but with so many of our interviewees talking about another CSC 'blitz' we decide to go to the last big climb of the race, the 2nd cat, 14 K Croix de Montvieux.

Just maybe there would be an 'explosion', or if not, then we'd go 'local colour.'

When a break of two hustled past, we knew it wasn't going to be a 'mega' day and settled for that 'local colour' - probably a lovely brown, the skin colour of two charming local ladies who we were chatting too, Laetitia and Noemie.

It was a great hour or so, Tour watching at its best - it was good to be almost, 'just a fan' again.

Again, the words and pics are on Pez.

The big drama was Cunego, he crashed early, gashing his chin and would finish the day 20-12 down, not bad for having ridden a near 100 mile time trial with four of his squadra.

He was being pushed up the climb, when we saw him. Just while I mention stats, the bunch did 55.7 kilometres in the first hour - wow!

We nipped right in behind the breakdown truck - you daren't let a gap open or you're on open roads with hundreds of cars and camper vans setting out for home.

Despite Cunego's injury, the five Lampre guys were riding at 40 to 50 kph on the flat, and touching 80 on the descents.

I didn't see much of it - I was sitting tapping the keys on Martin's BlackBerry, writing my pieces for Pez.

It's 8.40 pm in the press room at St. Etienne - which is actually located in the St. Etienne football stadium - the pieces are away, the pics are away and Martin is getting our VeloResults pictures up to date - sorry about the lack of them, but it has been hectic: 2.00 am we got to bed this morning.

Speaking of my driver, IT expert, and general neebz - he has a piece on Pez too here, give it a skek, you'll enjoy it.

I'm on a Tour motor bike tomorrow - wish me luck!

Le Tour 08, Stage 17 - Embrun to L'Alpe D'Huez

Words By Ed Hood, Photos by Martin Williamson

Ola!

Wee bit Spanish there in honour of Carlos, a great ride – one that puts him up with the legends.

But?

Is it enough to win him the 2008 Tour de France? We’ll find out on Saturday, in the chrono; Cadel has to be the favourite though.

It’s 9.00 pm and we’re still in the Salle de Presse on L’Alpe, another long one, but they all are. We spent the night in Pra Loup, a word of advice, do not visit the Club du Soleil les Bergers hotel, it’s not the answer!

We skipped breakfast and headed for Embrun, having its second visit from le Tour in 08; the stage started there on the Saturday we arrived.

The scenery en route to Embrun was spectacular.

We didn’t stop there, just picking up race route as far as the half way point on the Galibier; I don’t have the words to do the landscape justice, but here's a photo Martin took.

We had jagged peaks; azure lakes; glaciers; scree slopes; water falls; rocks torn, scarred, twisted and burst apart – one jaw dropping vista after another.

While the caravan, which we had shadowed up until that point headed over the Galibier, we took the direct route to L’Alpe.

The race crossed the Galibier and Croix Fer before they tackled the most famous mountain of them all.

The caravan didn’t take the biggest vehicles over the Galibier, they diverted on to our route and Martin had a bit of the old Carlos Sainz stuff to get past the Vache Qui Rit wagon and all the other bizarre trucks.

L’Alpe was as my buddy John and I left it - to head for Monaco in my trusty Opel Manta - after witnessing Pantani’s triumph.

The crowds weren’t the same, though – definitely down on those heady 90’s years.

‘Enough already of the good old days stuff,’ I hear you say, ok, ok!

Martin’s buddy, Steve "Firestarter" Mathison was on the hill, he’s honeymooning in France, doing the ‘camper van thing.’ We met them on Turn 9, as Steve and his new bride Katharine jumped in the Volvo - I jumped out on one of my ‘walk the course’ kicks.

Richard wanted us to split up today, two sets of pics and two pieces from the Tour’s most evocative day. It’s up on Pez, as are all the tales of our Tour travels, it was a great experience.

But I can’t help but think that pro cycling isn’t what it was in terms of being ‘the people’s sport.’

There were barriers for the last four kilometres; they make things different, maybe even sterile.

I know I’m the guy who goes on about how hairy it is to get off the mountain top finishes, but all the teams stay at L’Alpe, so there would be no riders braving the ‘crazies’ on the descent.

The only regret I have today is that I couldn’t stay with the Dutch fans and watch Menchov come past.

The Dutch fans maybe go a tad far with the drink, but they give a race great atmosphere; it’s just a pity that the Belgians don’t have Tour riders at the moment.

What we need is another good Dutch climber and a Belgian GC contender.

We have to get to Grenoble now, that’s about an hour on clear roads, much longer with traffic, so I’ll say ‘bon nuit,’ thank you for reading and; ‘see ye the morn, neebur.’

Le Tour 08, Stage 16 - Cuneo to Jausiers

Words By Ed Hood, Photos by Martin Williamson

Ah! The glamour of the Tour, sat in the toilet of the hotel room, word processing at 06.30 am.

I’m in here so as not to disturb Martin, who needs his sleep to get us up to l’Alpe D’Huez in a couple of hours.

The BlackBerry lost it’s ability to send emails last night, so instead of my usual tapping away on the tiny key pad, here I am on a full size job – albeit one that’s perched on the edge of the shower tray as I sit on the you-know-what.

But let’s talk about yesterday – is that a song title?

Its glorious today (Tuesday) the Volvo aircon is off, the windows are open and I’m sure that my washing on the back parcel shelf must be dry by now.

We’re on the lower slopes of the Col de la Bonette-Restefonde, he highest pass in France at 2,802 metres, it was conquered by our own Robert Millar in 1993, he snaffled the big money prime at the top, and behind him were Indurain and Rominger.

‘A little later’ – as they say: we’re high on the col now, we didn’t go all the way to the top so as we’d have room to manoeuvre, take pics and tuck in behind the convoy for a quick getaway.

It’s the roof of the world here, ringed with ranges which compete with each other to be the most savagely beautiful.

Talking of savage, the first climb of the day, the Lombarde was all that, being used today for the first time in the Tour, it was hair pinned, steep and long. The word is that there’s a group clear – which includes TT winner Schumacher – but others, including Vandevelde are trying to bridge; but the surprising American has cracked and is loosing time.

We’ll soon see for ourselves.

We were at the Tour Village in Cuneo early today, largely to grab some decent food for breakfast – the hotel chow was dire.

Fresh fruit salad, sausages, rye bread, a little red wine and a freshly ground coffee were just the job.

Pez has enlisted Martin to do some ‘Daily Distraction’ shots, that’s the spot on the site where there are pics of attractive young ladies, I’m too old for that kind of stuff and would run the constant risk of arrest for stalking.

I’m much more comfortable with bicycles, and set off to shoot Stuey, Dario and Adam Hansen’s machines, to go with the interviews I did, yesterday.

Martin is also working on a story about PowerCranks (not the SRM ones, the clutched ones) for Pez – Dario Cioni gave us some great info yesterday – and we were meant to have words with David Mee-lar (that’s how you say it if you’re an American).

Millar is apparently fanatical about their correct use, but not, it would seem about talking about them – never mind, we’ll pester and crack him, we’ve got patience and persistence; you’ll never do this job if you don’t.

I grabbed some pics of heroes from the past; Ventoux winner, Eros Poli and l’Alpe D’Huez winner Dag Otto Lauritzen – they both look great and I resolve AGAIN, to get back on me bike!

Time to go – the early part of the stage was pan flat; when we were talking to Matt White yesterday, he said that if it was flat for the first ten kilometres or so the day after a rest day then he wouldn’t bother too much about going out on his bike.

But if there was climbing early, then he’d go out so as not to seize up when gravity started to bite the next morning.

The scenery on the Lombarde was spectacular, not as surreal as the Restefond, but stunning nonetheless.

The descent was fast and not too extreme, helped by a smooth, sticky surface.

If you were dropped on the Lombarde, then there was time to get back, but that sign at the bottom of the Restefond which says; “Sommet 25.5 kilometres” wouldn’t really help.

When the race got to us, it didn’t strike me as a ‘death race,’ none of the groups, large or small, looked ‘in the bucket,’ in fact, there was banter going on in the autobus.

As Dave would text me later; “a bit o’ a damp squeeb” (firework rendered useless by exposure to moisture).

The big looser was Vandevelde, he started the day at 30 seconds and ended it at 3-15.
Menchov suffered a set back too, from 38 seconds to 1-13.

Kohl is the surprise, he looked very comfortable in his polka dot jersey yesterday, but he’ll have to make a move on the l’Alpe D’Huez stage to gain time, I don’t know much about him but can tell that he’s too small to be a top drawer tester and will loose time to Evans and Menchov.

Schleck is in the same boat, for all CSC’s strength, if Schleck doesn’t take time before the chrono, then Evans or Menchov will win.

Matt White says that CSC will put Sastre up the road early to try and force Evans and Menchov to chase – whatever happens, it’s always an epic to l’Alpe D’Huez, talk to you after that.

(But hopefully not from the loo!).

Le Tour 08, The Rest Day

Words By Ed Hood, Photos by Ed and Martin Williamson

Ciao! It was gone midnight when we hit the hay, last night.

There was no thought of food, just sleep, it seemed to take an age to get off the mountain at Pratto and get to our digs at Racconigi - maybe it was just because we were so tired.

Breakfast was chronic, stale bread, no cheese, no ham and everything else in polythene wrappers.

First mission of the day was to meet Stuey O'Grady at the CSC press conference.He's a buddy of Martin's pal, Pete Jacques.

The press conference was crowded and Bjarne told us how proud he was of everyone in the team - the team looked bored and the journos didn't ask anything too risque.

As soon as the conference was over, Martin approached Stuey, introduced himself and we grabbed a seat on the hotel patio - inside it was stuffy and warm.

Just as we sat down, the guy from Pro Cycling Mag arrived and without introduction told us that he wanted to speak to Stuey and he didn't have time to wait, his face; "the length of Leith Walk" and his brows; "gatherin' storm."

We asked Stuey if there was a meet organised with these guys, but there wasn't, so we just "dadded on' with the interview.

A prerequisite for being a pro cycling journo, it would seem, is a sense of self importance and a lack of courtesy. We'll happily stay amateur.

Stuey was cool, he's an easy guy to talk to. I've never seen him look skinnier, if you're in any doubt that he's a pro - check out the tan and battle scars on his arms, and Stuey's interview on Pez here.

We took a few more shots of Voigt, Cancellara, Sastre and Schleck then bolted to get some breakfast.

En route back to the town we passed F des J and Lampre ouit for their rest day easy run; "bon jour Philippe!"

Editing pictures and writing is much nicer sitting outside a café in Fossano than it is in the press room.

As we sipped our capuccinos, Lampre rolled past, Martin got a great pic of Ballan; and there was 'Bruz' - Bruseghin - our podium hero from the Giro; no such lofty heights here, but a cry of "Vai ! Bruz!" got a smile and a shout of recognition back.

Although it has to be said that Lampre don't have much to smile about in this Tour.

The Columbia hotel is in Fossano, so that's where we are just now, my Pez Stuey interview words are away, Martin has sent the pics to go with it, so that's our piece done for today, whatever gets done now is a bonus.

However, we have interviews arranged with Dario Cioni and Adam Hansen for later in the day - and maybe Matt White.

Not long after I wrote that paragraph, AG2R's - who share the hotel with Columbia - hugely experienced Jose Luis Arietta ambled past.

He was in the day long break over the Agnel and Prato yesterday finishing fourth, and has been a pro 'since gress' as we say in Fife. He was an Induarain domestique and rode for Banesto way back when Jez Hunt was there; "Jerimee iz good guy," he tells us.

Martin used those Spanish lessons to good effect and the dark, skinny climber chatted away for ages, even showing us his favourite Spanish cycling website and his palmares thereon.

Another man we bumped into was former World Pro Points Champion, Laurent Biondi, he's on the AG2R management team.

I know him from the Grenoble Six, where he helps Bernard Thevenet run the show, we had a wee chat, employing my best school boy French.

We decided to head down to Caraglio to catch Matt White, he'd said he'd phone us, but DS's are busy guys and sometimes you have to be a wee bit gallus.

He was chatting to friends when we arrived, so we had a good skek at the Felts.

The black bare carbon ones are nice; the equipment is the usual "real world of pro cycling" mix of 2008 and 2009 Dura Ace.

For example, Millar has the new 2009 rings on his 2008 cranks because there aren't 180's available yet.

This doesn't look nice because the new rings sit proud of the old cranks - but it's what many pro bikes are like if you look closely. That said, they will always be immaculate and function to perfection.

"Whitey" was interesting, eloquent and good fun, the interview is up on Pez here.

As we left, Jonathan Vaughters wandered round the car park, BlackBerry bolted to his lug.

Our next subject, some 40 minute drive away at Pianfei, was Cadel's main man, Dario Cioni, who gets skinnier, more tanned and handsome every time I see him.

It was like meeting an old friend and again that chat should be on Pez soon.

Hovering around was Dirk de Wolf, now with Lotto management - he was chuffed that I remembered he was a Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner, in the 'old days.'

Dario has an olive grove, from which he produces quality olive oil, the business is going well for him and when we left him, we were both clutching bottles of the precious liquid.

It was interesting to see Denis Menchov being interviewed by Spanish Radio, right behind where we were sitting.

He doesn't look nearly as imposing off the bike and clearly wasn't particularly enjoying the experience - like all the Russians he talks through the pedals.

One to go!

We were late back to Fossano to meet Adam, but he came out of diner to give us our 20 minutes, he must think we're worth talking to, or he wouldn't do that.

He's laid back, big, strong, tanned and a man who gives you carefully considered answers.

His personality isn't as extrovert as most Aussies, but he likes a chuckle and isn't hard to talk to - again, the interview is on Pez here.

We searched Fossano high and low for a restaurant, but we couldn't find a pizza place.

It was well gone 10.00 when we finally sat down to a slab of take away pizza and panini outside a bar, we had a beer to wash it down and an ice cream to finish - braw.

As my tutor at college told me never to write, we got back to the digs; "tired but happy!"

Ciao, ciao, montagna tomorrow, stay tuned.

Le Tour 08, Stage 15 - Embrun to Prato Nevoso

Words by Ed Hood, Photos by Ed and Martin Williamson

"Follow the road until further instructed," the satnav is working again!

Ahh ! pardon, bon jour mes amis en Ecosse, bienvenu à le 15eme etape de la Tour de France avec l'equipe VeloResults.

Kilometre 52, four kilometres from the summit of the Col d'Agnel and Jean-Paul Loris of ASO leaps into the road ahead of us.

Despite the fact that we've passed hundreds of police and officials, he's spotted that our stickers are the wrong colour.

We plead, beg, bargain; "Non! You stop, here!"

He drags a young policeman over to enforce the ban; Janitorial officialdom at it's very best.

The day started well enough, the road up to start at Embrun was straight and fast, if a bit wet.

Getting the creds was a pain, it's too sad to bore you with, but eventually we sorted it out - or not, as it transpired.

The early part of the stage wasn't too savage, but the Agnel was a brute, especially at the top, where the weather was diabolic - freezing with a gale force wind and sleet blowing through.

Old Jean-Paul stopped our charge before we got that far though and we breasted the summit behind the race.

At four K to go to the King of the Mountains points, where we were stopped, there were four riders away by a yawning margin and the non climbers - including Robbie McEwen were starting to slide off the back of the bunch. The only plus point, if you were dropped, was that the descent went on for ever.

Martin nipped in sharpish behind the broom wagon - with the permission of our gendarme friend, naturally - and we were offsky.

The descent was tricky early but as the altitude dropped so did the wind and precipitation.

The roads were dry and the sun was warm, when all of a sudden we had to slam on the anchors as we came into a right hand hairpin.

It was a crash, Oscar Pereiro, he'd hit a wooden fence, gone over the top and landed some five metres below on the road surface on the 'return' of the hairpin.

I thought he was dead and was initially reluctant to take pictures, but I thought; "it's my job!"

I snapped away, distressed by what I was doing and looking at.

But the pro snappers rattled off shots by the hundred, with completely impassive faces. I guess they've seen it all before, but I'm glad I get upset when I see something like that.

We followed the ambulance down off the climb and across the plains to Cuneo.

Sylvain Chavanel was dropped on the Agnel, we heard reports that he'd dropped his rain jacket and it had jammed in his derailleur and that was why he was off the back, or maybe it was just the fact that the climb was a pig?

Whatever the reason for his being dropped, he rode over the Agnel, down that tricky descent, across the plains, then up two cols, all on his own.

He was just ahead of us for much of the route, we could see him in front of the police cars and broom wagon which mark the end of the race.

At the end he was 42 minutes plus behind the leaders, but deserving a whole lot of admiration.

The final climb to Prato Nevoso was a toughie, the break held on and little Simon Gerrans of CA took the stage - that's him guaranteed a job next year.

Andy Schleck took the jersey, Cadel was wasted, but Menchov was impressive - 'til he fell off. The race is still side open, with a week to go - great!

Because we had to stop and put diesel for the Volvo, we were caught in the nitemare that is a mountain top finish in Italy. The top guys are no sooner in than the fans begin to cascade down the mountain; many of them drunk and aggressive. Then the riders start to ride back down - it's chaos, and extremely dangerous.

But we got there, eventually.

It's 10.10 pm and we're driving off the mountain, not the day we planned, but plenty to write about nonetheless.

Time to head north, find the digs and get a shower. Bon nuit - no, sorry - we're in Italia; ciao ! ciao !

Le Tour 08, Stage 14 - Nîmes to Digne-Les-Bains

Words by Ed Hood, Photos by Ed and Martin Williamson

Bon jour, pour le premier temps en le Tour 2008. (It'll get worse, we've got two French/English dictionaries with us)

Digne-les-Bains, Saturday afternoon, 38 degrees and U2 are telling us it's a "Beautiful Day" - that Bono, he knows everything.

We were supposed to meet up with Pez reader, John Larsen in Forcalquier, watch the race and sample the local fare, however, Jet2.com kept us sat on the tar at Turnhouse for an hour, before take off, scuppering our chances of catching the race.

And John forgot about the local fare - c'est la vie!

If the plane had been on time, we'd have made it without drama, but Murphy was on the Tour when he wrote those laws.

Oscar Freire won today; that consolidates his lead in the green jersey rankings. I bought L'Equipe, on our travels and this morning the Rabobank rider was 28 points ahead of Cavendish, but that lead will have been extended after today.

L'Equipe gives le Tour great coverage; "it should do!" I hear you say; "it's owned by ASO!" But I don't think it's as well laid out as the Gazetta coverage of the Giro. Still, it's nice to have all those sad stats to pour over.

A lot of the teams are still intact, but Barloworld have lost five. Soler has crashed out - again, he did the same in the Giro, and of course we had, "l'affaire Dueñas." It must be very hard for the 'survivors' to motivate themselves with the team leader gone and a drugs scandal hanging over them.

We spoke to the manager, Claudio (Jack the Lad) Corti at the Giro and he was scunnered (as we say in Fife) that Soler had crashed out; he'll be off the disappointment scale this time.

The Saunier team list shows a line through every rider's name. I have mixed emotions on the Saunier Scandal, on the one hand it would seem like there's been an organised drug taking programme in the team. In days gone by, that was par for the course, but the world has turned and it has to stop. The public are sick of it, the sponsors are panicing (Saunier have said they'll bail if it's found that the drug taking was organised by the management) and I'm sick of it.

I was at Strasbourg two years ago when Basso, Ulrich, Sevilla and Mancebo were all sent home.

I was there when the Vino, Cofidis and Rasmussen disasters happened last year. My heart has been on a steady downward plunge this year with Beltran, Duenas, Ricco and Saunier.

But on the other hand, I've been to two Saunier training camps, sat in their team car for the entire length of Milan - San Remo. I know Mauro, Pietro and Matxin, I've eaten with them, laughed with them and it's hard to see them as monsters.

It's interesting too looking at the names that are on this race, right up there in the Giro, but just making up the numbers here, take Bruseghin from Lampre; a podium at the Giro, currently lying 25th.

Forcalquier was nice, an arty sort of a place, with galleries and wee alleys with old bars that needed visiting - if you weren't Pezzing.

Digne-les-Bains looked nice too, with it's 'Centre Ancien,' not that we got any chance to explore it. We had to track down the Permanence and get our creds. If you don't have creds, especially the car stickers, then you don't go anywhere, full stop.

The race organaisation had us down as arriving for the start today, that couldn't have happened, because even if we had touched down on time, we were still arriving after the start.

It's supposed to be the case that if you don't collect your creds at a specific start, then you have to collect them at the finish of the next stage.

I'm not sure if this to 'sort you out' for messing them about.

If we'd had to do that, it would certainly have caused us hassle, it would have taken maybe five hours to get to the Prato Nevoso finish and blown tomorrow's plan, which is to drive race route.

Fortunately, the lovely Stephanie took our problem on board, gave us race manuals and says our creds will be at the start in Embrun for us.

It's 8.40 and we're on the road to our hotel at the minute, I have the Pez words written for today, but we still have the pics to sort out, so best say - Bonsoir !

En Tour - Day 10

by Ed Hood
photos by Martin Williamson

It was gone 2.00 am when we got to bed, but the alarm blasted at 5.45 am - we had to meet the mechanic from Velo Sport Vacations at 06.00 am.

He was right on time and it was only a couple of minutes after six when we pedalled-off on our borrowed Felts to ride the finishing circuit around the Champs Elysees.

It's the first time I've ridden an all carbon bike and it felt very lively, James McCallum rode a Felt last year.

The city was buzzing, taxis dropped-off and picked-up those who had decided against sleeping on Saturday night.

We took some pics of guys and girls - the girls looking good, the guys maybe not so good.

The riggers were already hard at work, the Tour involves constructing, then breaking-down a hi-tech village every day for three weeks.

It was good being there, out on the circuit, stopping-off to take pics and notes.

I don't know if Pez will run the piece today, Monday is the biggest day for hits, so he may run it then.

Despite the cobbles and drag up to the Arc de Triomphe, it's a fast circuit.

The stretch along the Seine is super-quiick, fast tar and a tail wind.

We had an invite from the guys at Velo Sport Vacations to watch the race from one of the balcony's of the Hotel de Crillon, overlooking the Place de la Concorde.

Very elegant and exclusive, a free glass of champers when the race appeared on the Place and big screens in the salon.

Call me a blether, but the Tour isn't about exclusivity and keeping the peasants out - it's about sharing your cheese and wine with people you've never met in your life before, beside some stretch of road in la France Profonde - real France.

It wasn't long before we bailed-out and headed for the barriers - totally unexclusive, but real.

First though, we had an omelette for lunch, on the Rue de Rivoli, it was extortionate but what's better than watching the Tour caravan go past whilst sitting in the shadow of the Ferris wheel?

The crowds were huge, every inch of the route was lined.

We walked "against" the race along the side of the Seine and back to the finish.

For the first couple of laps it wasn't mega-quick, but the finale was very fast.

Geraint Thomas did a good job for Hunter, but you could tell that Bennati had told his Lampre boys; "get me there boys, and I'll win it for us."

His team worked themselves to death, some of them slumped over the bars, freewheeling-in after the sprint, completely wasted. Lampre would enjoy their post-Tour party, for sure.

Boonen and QuickStep just weren't organised, maybe they were all tired? But Tom looked happy and relieved as he tugged-on the final green jersey. He's a very popular rider and was cheered as loudly as Contador.

The laps of honour were good fun; each team rides up the Champs Elysees and back down, brandishing flags, waving, and larking around - relieved and happy to be in Paris.

Boonen didn't forget his loyal Flemish fans: he stopped and ambled over to the fence for a hundred handshakes.

Lampre were full of joy.

Barloworld flew the Union Jack, Colombian and Republic of South Africa flags from the bike rack; and Geraint was patently in awe.

Euskaltel flew the Basque flag - all great stuff. Another marvellous experience for us to put in our catalogue of life. We met the best of folks, the riders we spent time with were cool to a man, the scenery was amazing, and we laughed a lot.

But, a great Tour? How could it be? Four major drug scandals - Sinkewitz, Vino, Moreni, and Rasmussen; plus a thunderstorm always in the air around the winner.

A great ten days of our lives, but a poor, poor Tour. We tried hard to take you with us, and hope you enjoyed at least some of our words and pictures.

Until the next race; "ciao, ciao."

PostScript: we got a text message as we got off the plane at Prestwick: "Mayo positive"......

En Tour - Day 9

I forgot to say last night, for the first time in this Tour, I got a prediction right.

I chose Casar out of the four man break, you could see it in his eyes, he wanted it more than any of the others.

There's a great picture of him on the front cover of L'Equipe today - it's all there in his face, determination and pride; "maybe the other French guys can't win a stage, but I sure as hell can!"

Cafè au lait (have you noticed that Mertin has shown me how to get accents above the letters now?) and a Cognac, nine euros!?!

"Eef you cannot steeff les touristes, then oo' can you steeff, hien?"

Still, it was a good coffee, a grande measure of cognac and the toilets were free of Lasa Fever.

We've just passed the stage finish, but we have to go to the start to get on the course, there's absolutely no danger of getting on to it from a side road, even with creds.

It's nice country here, flat with unfenced fields of sun flowers and grape vines stretching away from the road to the horizon.

Finding the start was a doddle today, and even getting the crucial yellow sticker, which you need to follow a rider in a test, wasn't too bad. If you go to Pez, our day is up here.

We had a great day, following Charly was cool, even though he's no specialist you can't fail to be impressed by the bike handling and speed.

I said to Mertin that as you get older, you get better at recognising the times of your life when you are having them, and not after the fact.

Following Charly today, through the beautiful vineyards of Cognac with huge, screaming crowds at the top of the drags - an experience I'll never forget.

Like I said, in some places the crowds were huge, but not consistently-so, and I can't help but feel that maybe all the scandal is biting, as far as road-side presence goes.

We shared wine and cheese with some nice local folks, it was great; when it was time to go there were hand-shakes all-round.

It sounds corny, but you meet the best folks roadside at le Tour.

The time checks we took were showing that there was a real battle going-on, it was unlikely that Leipheimer or Cabel could win, but the fact that 31 seconds now cover the top three speaks for itself.

We were standing at 10K to go and there was a good buzz there, but the radio commentary wasn't the usual frenzy, rather matter of fact, it was.

The press room is never exactly friendly and it's uncool to get excited about the racing, but it was even 'flatter' and more subdued than usual.

I'm not daft on the press room, it's bad for my kharma, I'm so full of enthusiasm for the racing and I feel it drain out of me when I walk in the place - or maybe it's just me.

Contador's press conference took place next door and he had no-sooner sat down, than the Puerto questions started.

I don't know what his involvement was with Fuentes, but if you ask the same questions today as you did yesterday and the day before, you'll get the same answers.

Especially given that I know he speaks at least a little English, but he'll only take questions in Spanish.

This means he's hearing most questions twice, before he answers them.

He also seems quite a thick-skinned wee cookie, he sits there impassively as the Puerto this, that and the other questions come at him. If he was involved, shouldn't the UCI have acted?

It's now 23.41 and we're nearly in Paris, I even took a wee shot of driving. I'm going to go on the internet and see if I can get details of the French driving test.

I'm particuarly interested in learning to tail-gate correctly and also the new arrangement of manouvere, signal and what's a mirror?

To get points on your licence in France, you would have to fire an RPG out the back window at a squad car.

Anyway, a good day, but I'll be glad to see a pillow. Last day tomorrow - Boonen?

En Tour - Day 8

by Ed Hood

It took a wee while to find the hotel last night, but it was worth it. It's an old farm which has been converted to a hotel, complete with swimming pool; it's quite the idylic spot.

We are sharing hotels with an American cycle tour party, Pez has done a deal with them - ads on the site in exchange for hotel rooms for Pez guys on the Tour.

Three of the party were sitting near us at breakfast, this morning, oldest guy to other two; "D'you think. Armstrong took drugs?" Silence!

En route Cahors and the start, a guy has been tail-gating us so closely he'd be as well in the back seat.

He passes us, his hazard lights are on, he tailgates the guy in front and pulls-out to pass him on a blind bend, swerving back in because something is coming - crazy, suicidal.

Cahors, the biggest day of the year for this bonnie, Medieval town. The newsagents, to buy L'Equipe, nice not to have a drugs story on the front page. A point of interest - the town of Condom is near here, but what we call a condom, the French call a 'preservative' - remember that guys, if you meet a French lady - don't take a haff pund o' rhubarb and ginger back if she asks you to remember "le preservative."Mission for the day was bikes - top six plus the maillot vert and king of the mountains.

Taking pics of bikes is an art - in the morning at the depart is best, they are clean and the mechanics aren't too grumpy, but you have to get an individual shot of the bike you want, rows of bikes just 'bleed' into each other. Ideally the background should be a contrasting colour, but sometimes that's difficult, your usual backdrop will be the team bus. Take the CSC Cervelos, black velo, black bus, not the best.

We had our list of bikes and one by one we nailed them. We already had the Treks of 'Bert' - if you read Pez then you should now who that is, and Levi (Go! Disco! - that's what you shout, by the way) But we had the velos of Cadel, Carlos Sastre, Haimar Zubeldia (back from the grave) and the highest paid rider on the planet - Alejandro Valverde, to nail. Plus Tom's Specialized and Soler's Cannondale.

One by one we ticked them off; "excusé moi monsieur, un photo, le velo ****, est possible, s'il vous plait?" We got them all - have a skek at Pez. Final 'tick' on the list was an interview with James Alexander, the QuickStep bus driver - he's from Forfar, or as the Dundee boys would say Farfarr!

He's a cool guy, he had Dave, Viktor and I on the bus at Kuurne for a coffee.But this is the Tour and we had to get clearance from the QuickStep PR guy Alessandro; watch Pez for that one too.

We jumped off the bus just before 'wagons roll', waved 'bon voyage' to James as the circus left town and headed for a café.Café au lait and a cognac - c'est bon.

No press room for the boys today, the hotel has wi-fi; it's hard to explain how happy that makes us. Instead of a the borstal dining-room atmosphere of the salle de presse, we sat by the pool and rattled-off the words and pics for the velos piece and an interview we did with Geraint Thomas - yes, you know, watch Pez!

Sandy Casar won the stage - good news, France needed a stage win.

Dinner was great, a wee brasserie a kilometre from the digs. It's now midnight as I finish today's entry. A big day tomorrow, 55 kilometres 'alone and unpaced' as the RTTC used to say. Can Evans leapfrog Contador - I don't think so; can Leipheimer leapfrog Evans - possible.

Whatever happens, we'll be there, please join us. And start practising now - "Go! Aussie!"

En Tour - Day 7

by Ed Hood

Pau, Thursday morning, the sun is out, so that's a good start. How do we feel? A tad flat, it has to be said, but the show must go on.

Over to our left, the publicity caravan is rolling-out, headed for Castelsarrasin. It's a day for the "baroudeurs" today - the breakaway specialists.

There are five fourth and one third category climbs today, so it's a hard day's work - maybe a French win? That would be nice, this Tour could do with a 'lift'.

The Pez guy is out of the office today, checking-out the 2008 Look frames and bikes launch in San Jose - a dirty job, but...

That means I'm pretty-much left to my own devices, story-wise, although to be fair, Mr. Pestes usually just gives me freedom on what I want to cover each day, anyway.

Yesterday we tried to keep up-beat and whilst we were out grabbing crowd reaction to the Vino situation, we kept it as light and fluffy as we could. The fact is, that I felt a bit foolish after my, "all's well now that we've emptied Vino" piece.

It had no sooner been sent than the Moreni situation developed, only for that to be rendered, 'common or garden' by the Rasmussen situation. Today we decided not to skirt around it, but to address it.

It should be up on Pez shortly, give it a read, it was interesting to hear what all the guys said. Maybe I'm getting soft, but I felt that all of them have had enough and just want to race their bikes in a kit-free world. Let's hope so.

It hasn't been too tough a day today, we didn't have to get up whilst it was still dark and the start wasn't a million miles from the hotel.

After our interviews, we rattled the Renault here, to Castelsarrasin, the stage finish.

The press room is very subdued today, there's not the same 'buzz'. Contador didn't start in yellow today, he wore his white jersey and zoomed through the throng this morning, no autographs, no interviews.

He was awarded the yellow jersey this afernoon though, after the stage.

At the press conference, he got a right kicking - "Do you take drugs?/Were you involved in Puerto?/Do you know Ferrari?/Who is your doctor?/Who is your coach?"

The interesting thing was that nobody in the salle de presse raised an eyebrow; I think that everybody has "Tour drug scandal fatigue."

We got everything away reasonably early, then headed for Montauban to interview Geraint Thomas.

Time just evaporates on the Tour and it was after 8.00 before we caught-up with the young Welshman.

Hopefully that will be up on Pez before too long. The time now is 10.00 pm and I'm "blogging" - I must have got my enthusiasm back.

Did we get a French winner? Nah - Bennati (Lampre & Italy). c'est la vie.

En Tour - Day 6

by Ed Hood

The alarm went at 06.00 this morning, we're driving the full stage today, all the way from Orthez to the top of the Aubisque, that's 218.5 kilometres with a 3rd, two 1rst and two hors categorie climbs.

It's 07.45, and we're trying to exit the autoroute at Orthez, but Tour traffic is clogging the toll plaza, in the midst of all this are Marge, Homer, Bart and Lisa Simpson, on their four-up bike.

They are advertising their movie, on the Tour publicity caravan, I wonder where the wee one is? - transpires that Marge is carrying her, none of them have a helmet on, either.

Writing a diary like this when you are on the Tour is quite difficult, your main focus is on the job you are doing and the "blogging?" (first time I've ever used that word) has to be fitted-around everything else. Take this entry, I'm sitting in the bathroom on Thursday morning, waiting on my bath filling whilst Martin is still asleep.

If you follow the race the way we do, driving full stages and spending days up on mountains, it's tough to find the time to write, even on the BlackBerry.

Driving the stage, you have to keep your eyes open, to get the ly of the land, spot photo opportunities and grab interviews. Also, a lot of the time, you are on small twisting roads or crazy descents and it's next to impossible to write. Most times, I get up to date, last thing at night - but yesterday I just didn't have the head for it.

As I said above, we intended to drive the whole course and try to get some up-beat interviews as well as trying to explain what a stage is really like. We didn't get as many interviews as we would have liked, but we got three good ones and a lot of good pics.

As I explained on Pez, no non-race traffic was allowed past the press room, so we mini-bussed it to the top then walked down, so as we could get pictures - I had blisters last night; six kilometres downhill, sockless on burning tar.

We arrived back at the press room eventually and sat down to work. I finished my copy while Martin sorted-out the pictures, a time-cosuming, finicky job. Meanwhile, Rasmussen's stuttering answers were met with gales of laughter from the journos as his press conference was beamed-in.

We shrugged and got-on with our work. The first bomb dropped shortly after that, former Italian champion, Cristian Moreni (Cofidis) had failed a test, and was out, not only that, so was the entire Cofidis team.

I dont have pictures of Bradley Wiggins on my walls, but the man has progressed so much this year and his ride in the TT at Albi was a good one.

To deny him the chance to ride the last TT is very hard. But! If that's what it takes to get the message home, then so be it. Another thing that was shocking, was Moreni being dragged-away by the police immediately after the stage, still in his racing kit. I'm sure that particular image will do no harm to those who are still 'dabbling'.

It was late when we finished at the salle de presse and began the journey to Lourdes, we tried to get back the shortest way - over the Aubisque, but there was grid-lock up there as they were still stripping-down the commentary positions and barriers at the top. U-turn, back down the hill and the long-way round. We were still on the road and it was approaching midnight when the text came in from. Martin's girlfriend; she had just seen, on the TV news, that Rasmussen was out.

I fired-off emails and texts and we pieced it together, the two Danish federation tests that Rasmussen missed, because he was, "in Mexico, visiting my wife's family", he had actually been training incognito in Italy. Italian TV commentator and ex-rider, Davide Cassani had spotted him, in the Dolmites and contacted Danish TV.

Rasmussen had to admit to his Rabobank manager, Theo de Rooy, that he had lied about his whereabouts. Rabobank acted quickly; they fired him and he's off the race. This wasn't so-much bomb number two - it was a thermo-nuclear device.

As we sat in the sad, neon, tackiness that is down-town Lourdes, munching our over-priced pizza at wearing-on for 1.00 am, we were in a state of surreal shock.

It's 11.00 am now, on Thursday and we're off to the stage start at Pau, to get rider reactions.

What comes after thermo-nuclear device?

En Tour - Day 5

by Ed Hood

Rest-day, it's a bit of a misnomer if you are journo on the Tour.

My first task was to get the washing done, I try to travel light and do a washing every couple of days, it's a "fine drying day, today" as my mum used to say, so by the time I get back tonight, my wardrobe should be replinished.

I left Martin to get a little extra beauty sleep after all that driving and wandered-off to find a caff.

It didn't take long and I soon had my cafe au lait and armagnac in front of me.

I caught-up on the emails and texts then had a think about today - the piece will be, what a journalist, mechanic and rider do on the rest day.

The answer for us is easy - work! First stop was Pau to catch our old pal and spanner-man supreme, Allan Buttler of Discovery.

En-route we caught-up with Dario Cioni (Predictor/Lotto) to get some pics of him on his rest day run.
Cadel was there with him, and 'Fast Freddy' Rodriguez.

Next-up was to find Al, the hotel where Disco were was guarded like Fort Knox, but it didn't stop the hopeful 'groupies' at the gates. Apart from asking Al about his rest day, we wanted shots of Alberto Contador's steed.

Alberto was out on the road